Chapter 389: Lynn Maxwell: Is my Infinite Nuclear Explosion just a dream now?
Seeing the determination beneath the Saint's crown, Joshua refrained from further persuasion, easing his worries about the wizards considerably.
With this, reclaiming the kingdom was only a matter of time!
"Has the next candidate for the Saint been decided?" Lucia inquired.
"These are the candidates..." The Pope gently stroked the scepter in hand, and images of five figures appeared within the Tower of the Firmament.
They were all young girls aged 16 to 18, impeccable in appearance, status, and talent. Four of them were deeply devout, meticulously nurtured by the local church, possessing the spiritual power level of bishops.
The remaining one surprised Lucia; she wasn't a nun but a member of the Punishment Legion. Logically, she shouldn't have qualified.
"This one is the second daughter of Viscount Pedrol, Ivina Pedrol, from the Eastern Port Town," the Pope explained respectfully. "She passed the Punishment Legion's selection two years ago. Though her psychic talent is slightly inferior, she possesses exceptional combat intuition, recommended specifically by the Legion's commander."
"The Eastern Port Town that was nearly scorched by the Hellfire?" Lucia paused, expressing surprise.
The incident had made quite a stir and naturally reached her ears. It was said to involve a powerful wizard who had lurked within the empire for a long time, and it was only due to Edweil's timely arrival that the individual was expelled. Such a tragedy hadn't occurred under the jurisdiction of the Holy See for many years!
"Yes." The Pope nodded, then continued, "The eldest son of the Pedrol family was killed in that disaster. Ivina joining the Punishment Legion might be related to this.""Another revenge plot?" Lucia felt rather disinterested. Even after hearing Ivina's information, she didn't dwell on it much.
Combat talent was just an embellishment; psychic ability was the foundation!
Lucia casually selected a candidate she found pleasing and waved her hand, sighing, "You may leave; I'm tired and need some rest."
The two present nodded, saluted, and quickly exited the Tower of the Firmament.
Once the Chief Judge Joshua stepped out of the tower, he couldn't help but sigh. "It's a pity the kingdom's fall is happening now."
Just another three to five years, and the goal of a million devout believers would have been achieved.
It was unfortunate that the wizards chose this time to incite rebellion in the kingdom, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of devout followers through warfare and persecution. Their plans might need to be postponed again...
"No matter, if Her Highness is willing to personally eliminate the Wizard Council, it might not be a bad thing for the Holy See," the Pope said in a flat tone.
The kingdom's subjects, after witnessing the greatness of the divine, would naturally return to the embrace of the Lord...
...
[Hadralata] Capital City. In a tightly sealed laboratory, Orlando, Philip, and over thirty members of the Iyeta School of Wizards were busy drawing a massive alchemical array underground.
While everyone was engrossed in sketching the electromagnetic array, Lynn wasn't idle. After initial testing, the uranium content in the outer shell of the demon stone was over 95%!
Of course, not all uranium was suitable for nuclear weapons.
Natural uranium ore had three isotopes: uranium-234, uranium-235, and uranium-238.
Among them, uranium-238 had the highest content, over 99%, but unfortunately, it wasn't practical as nuclear fuel. Its half-life was extremely long, in the billions of years, making it challenging to induce nuclear fission.
Uranium-235, on the other hand, was unique. It was the only isotope found in nature that could undergo spontaneous fission, with a radioactivity 6.5 times that of uranium-238, making it the crucial fuel for nuclear weapons!
However, its reserves in nature were incredibly scarce, with only seven atoms of uranium-235 for every thousand uranium atoms!
Uranium-234 was even rarer, with only 0.0054%!
The principle of nuclear weapons was straightforward: allowing a neutron to collide with atoms like uranium-235, forcing them to split into smaller atoms, generating surplus neutrons in the fission process. These would then strike other uranium-235 atoms, initiating a chain reaction, causing all nuclear fuel to undergo fission in a short time.
According to the mass-energy equation, the mass loss from atomic fission would be converted into a massive amount of energy, resulting in the nuclear explosion!
However, despite the simplicity in theory, executing it wasn't that easy.
During the uranium content test, Lynn encountered a tricky problem: they couldn't use the Advanced Material Deconstruction spell to break down elements like uranium!
This discovery surprised Lynn immensely. After becoming a Grand Wizard, they had analyzed forty-nine known elements in the Wizarding Realm using this spell.
Previously, Lynn had believed that no atomic energy could escape their magical influence. However, this time, they faced a challenge...
However, uranium was indeed different from the elements previously discovered by wizards. Firstly, it was a radioactive element, with the chemical symbol U and an atomic number of 92, belonging to the actinide series in the periodic table, and it was also the heaviest element found in nature in the past life...
After pondering for a while, Lynn speculated that perhaps all actinide elements, the 15 radioactive elements with atomic numbers 89 to 103 in the Group IIIb of the periodic table, might be unresolvable by the power of a Grand Wizard.
This might be the reason why they had remained undiscovered for so long...
Thinking of this, Lynn felt somewhat helpless. It meant that their dream of mimicking uranium-235 with magic to unleash an infinite nuclear explosion had been shattered.
Now, they could only harness its power through slightly more scientific means...
After an entire night of work, Elok and the others finally drew the last electromagnetic symbol on the ground. After confirming its accuracy, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.
"Dean, the electromagnetic array you requested is set up," Elok wiped the sweat from his forehead, speaking with immense excitement.
"Good. Let's proceed!" Lynn stepped forward, ensured the array was flawless, then used the Mage's Hand to place the 'demon stone' at the center of the array, initiating the alchemical formation.
The next moment, intricate inscriptions on the ground began lighting up one by one, bright flashes of white lightning appeared within the array. The crackling of electric arcs echoed in the sealed chamber, containing a powerful and violent thunderous force, tightly confined within a radius of about three meters around the array. Soon, it surged toward the demon stone placed at the center...
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